‘Are you sure we want to go in there when she’s all riled up? What if she doesn’t know we’re friends?’ Lola asked. Tessa could feel her worry. ‘We were part of her coven, but we never even met her.’
Tessa could hear through Hunter’s ears.
‘If I know the council, and I do, they’ll be too afraid to send in any help. She’s on her own. Hella is the promised witch, we need her. And aside from that, we can’t let them keep her locked up,’ Hunter said. Tessa’s sister would always do what was right, she thought.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Remy
In the quiet backroom of the store, Remy stowed herself away to continue the potion. On a small workbench sat a deep pewter cauldron, bubbling and sizzling with magical heat. To her annoyance, after Hella’s relocation, her familiar Salem had shown up at Remy’s door and meowed incessantly until she had let him in. Now, the cat sat on Remy’s workbench, and the witch was entirely sure he was tempted to knock her vials onto the floor. His tail twitched.
Remy turned to the side, where her ingredients lay; vials of herbs and spices, and an empty vial, waiting for Meele’s special blood. She had ground Net’s feather into a fine powder using her marble mortar and pestle, adding it to the bubbling cauldron. For a moment, it turned a pure, glowing silver. Remy sighed to herself, still in mourning for her fallen coven. She didn’t know if angels had taken out a whole coven before, but if they had, she hadn’t heard of it. Remy wondered where Hunter was, then felt for the poor faerie girl, Tessa, who missed her sister.
The angels were taking impulsive, angry measures now, and she worried what their next step would be to squashing even the softest of Cambion allies. Remy had made a few phone calls that morning, to the Faerie and Warlock Houses, to collaborate on their efforts, and even to their Cambion Den where some of their strays ended up; like a half-way house. She knew after speaking to the Warlock House and filling them in, and asking about Tommy and Harrow, that the latter warlock tended to spend time at the Den because, until now, he had refused to go home. It mostly housed children who were otherwise unwanted or outcast.
Remy gathered up a curl of red hair she had cut from Hella as she slept one night, then dropped it into the potion. The liquid gave a fiery bubble, changing with bursts of red and purple, boiling with Hella’s magical power. It would give the potion an extra kick, the power of the promised witch. But she still needed Meele’s blood.
What at first sounded like a knock on the door, Remy quickly attributed to someone breaking the door down into her store. She grabbed an athame from the counter and stepped into the main room, only to huff in annoyance. ‘You stupid teenagers, that’s my door.’ Salem meowed his displeasure.
Tommy recognised him. ‘Oh, hi there cat. I’d wondered where you’d gone.’ Salem meowed again. ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to get her back,’ the orange-haired warlock promised the cat. At that moment, another warlock strode through Remy’s broken door, black Marks shining in the light.
She blinked. ‘You’re a Mettalum,’ she said, a little surprised. ‘I’ve never met one of your ilk before.’
Leo seemed to puff up. ‘That’ll be because those angels keep taking us, and selling our obsidian Marks to that fucking bastard, Immego.’ He turned. ‘Sorry, kids,’ he apologised. ‘M’lady,’ he nodded at Remy who cackled.
‘No lady here, warlock. Okay, then, all of you come in.’
They sat in the adjoining room, but the warlock boys were vibrating with angry energy. ‘I can’t believe you did that to her,’ the orange-haired warlock growled. ‘After everything you’re doing to help stop our oppressors, and you hand her over to another one!’
Leo stood, a calming presence. ‘Boys, shush. Witch, we need to get her back. She’s our only shot at salvation, surely you know that.’
‘Of course I do,’ Remy snapped. ‘She’s fine. It is the best thing for her. And do you really think she was safe here, with me? The angels killed my entire coven. Hella and I wouldn’t have a chance if they decided to come here next.’
Harrow growled low in his throat. ‘You can’t just lock her away until you’re ready to use her.’ Shimmered, his tail whipped the air. Salem watched him, seemed to approve of his outrage, and copied his motion, his own soft tail flicking wildly.
‘As I said,’ Remy repeated, ‘she’s fine.’ She cast an intrigued look at Salem. ‘Little beast, aren’t you?’
‘You don’t know that,’ Tommy spat. ‘What if she’s hurt?’
‘We have to get to her,’ Harrow said. ‘That’s why we’re going to go see her for ourselves.’ Harrow glared at Remy, daring her challenge their resolve.
‘Which one of you, hmm?’ Remy asked casually. Leo paused and looked at the boys, his dark brows raised, a slow smirk gathered on his face.
The teenagers looked at each other. ‘What?’ they echoed.
Remy cleared her throat. ‘Which one of you hopes to be her hero, to win the hand of the pretty girl? We don’t have time for this nonsense. She might be locked up, for her own safety, but she’s fine, I’ve been assured.’
Tommy blushed so hard his cheeks matched his orange hair, and Harrow’s usual scowl deepened to make him look more indignantly angry than Remy had imagined he could be. Remy took a moment to consider the ramifications of her actions. The spell she had attempted in trying to locate Meele, how Harrow had bled for her, then been awash with her flames. But, Remy thought piously, Hella, her student, had healed him.
Remy shook herself. ‘I can’t stop you from going to find her, but you’re wasting your time.’
Tommy pulled Harrow away before he struck out. ‘It’s our time to waste,’ Tommy sneered.
Harrow pulled out of his grip, all dark fury. ‘You think you know what’s best for her? Do her parents, her family, know what you’ve done? I bet her mother would drop a house on you, witch, if she knew.’ Harrow pulled her from her seat and shoved Remy up against a wall, resentment and anger seemed natural colours on him. Slit blue eyes bore into hers. ‘I’m going to find her,’ he whispered dangerously, ‘and for your own sake, you better hope she’s not hurt, because whatever injuries she has, you will have at my hand.’
Neither Tommy nor Leo pulled him back. It was that inaction alone that spurred him on. His tail flicked a long, deep gash down her arm, and she gasped. ‘For the cut you gave me,’ he said as the red ran down her wrinkled arm. ‘You’re lucky I don’t set you on fire too. Like you did to me.’
‘Wait, what, boy? What did she do to you?’ Leo leaned forward, protective.
‘She cast a spell,’ Tommy explained. ‘A very bad one which did not work.’
Remy was pinned against the wall.
‘First you hurt one of my House, then you put our best—our only ally in danger?’ Leo growled, his obsidian-marks shifting along his body. He slammed a fist onto the coffee table and a dozen black spikes flew through it—crushing it—and out into the room, avoiding the boys, one flew about three centimetres from Remy’s head, landing in the wall with a whistle and thunk.
Remy’s eyes widened. ‘I did what I had to do,’ she snapped. ‘So, the spell didn’t work, what do you care? Hella healed you, you child!’
Harrow’s tail landed a swish across her cheek leaving a thin, bleeding line. ‘I still care. Because you nearly killed me—and that doesn’t matter to you at all. Because to you, the ends will always justify the means, and that is wrong. We’re going to find Hella, and we’re going to make sure she knows who fought for her, who wanted to help her, and who put her there.’ Together, the three warlocks left in a storm of righteous fury.
‘Bloody teenagers,’ Remy cursed. ‘Always making a mess in here. Do they ever clean it up? No.’
Chapter Seventy-Three
Hella
Hella ran as fast and as far from Henry and Dimitri as she could, breathing hard, stumbling through long winding corridors and wandering from one hallway to another with no sense of where she was going, o
r how she could get out of here. But for now, she was trying to find her friends, who may or may not recognise her. The thought made her want to be sick.
Henry’s blood was now drying on her hands, splattered up her arm. She tried to ignore it. Again, Hella tried to reach for her magic, and stopped dead in the hallway, closing her eyes. There was something inside her that tingled, her chakras burning ever so slightly. It was back. She was rested enough, if not currently exhausted, for her abilities to return.
‘Hella, you’ll never find them.’ Henry’s taunting voice echoed through the corridors.
He came up behind her and clamped a hand down over her mouth. She kicked out and even tried to bite into his hand, but couldn’t. Then, like a dam flooding, her chakras burned bright as her fire burst from her hands in a hot red-purple wave, lighting up her hands like gloves. A shimmer of purple fire flashed through her hair and Henry screamed, snatching his hand back before it could be burned off clean. Hella even felt her eyes change, could see a glow coming from them. She threw a rush of fire at her captor, who dodged it.
For the first time, she could see him out of the darkness of her cell. He wore a plain, ordinary suit. His dark, messed hair, was a plain mouse-brown. He looked positively boring to work in such a place as this. The only interesting thing about him was a slick cane he carried, though she hadn’t noticed if he walked with a limp. She threw another wild burst of red-purple fire at him, and it flew wide and even shattered a nearby window, the flame and smoke billowing into the night. She wondered if everyone outside could see it, and if she were about to be set upon by a dozen armed humans. She strode up to Henry and grabbed him by his suit jacket.
‘Where are my friends?’ she growled.
Cradling his burned and blistering hand, Henry frowned down at her, as if disbelieving that a young person would demand something of him. ‘That’s not how this works, young lady. Go back to your cell. Now.’
Hella focused on her telekinesis. His cane was torn out of his hand and she caught it, examining it. The pommel was smooth metal, finely made, and the stick matched, with small winking crystals running in spiralling patterns down the sides. Henry looked outraged, but remained still. ‘Do not break that, child.’
Hella wanted to tear it into a hundred pieces, just for calling her a child. Instead, on a hunch, she twisted the pommel, and pulled, and out came a thinly bladed sword from within the cane. Henry’s eyes glittered, either with fear or contempt, she could not tell. ‘Well, isn’t that neat.’ Hella crooned. ‘Now, where, I wonder, did you get something like this? Now, you stole my favourite blade, I think it’s fair that I should steal yours.’ She walked slowly toward him, the blade’s point aimed at his heart.
To his credit, he did not retreat. ‘Your athame is being kept safe, Hella. As are your friends. As were you,’ he added. ‘This is my establishment, Hellora, and we are the keepers of secrets. I’m sure you know by now who we are, but what we do, I suspect, has not been entirely explained.’ He was lecturing her while she approached, as though by explaining his ‘good’ intentions of kidnapping her and her friends, she would somehow forgive him.
Hella raised the blade, resting it on his chest. ‘Explain yourself better,’ she said, pushing it in just a centimetre, blood blossoming from beneath his white shirt. She noticed his right arm was also bleeding from where she had stabbed him earlier with the glass. ‘Remy sent me here, didn’t she?’
Henry’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why would you ask that? She’s your guardian.’
‘She told me. As I passed out, she said, “You can come back when the time is right. When we need your powers for our battle.” She put me aside until she needs me. She didn’t train me like she was supposed to, she dumped me here. And this’—Hella thrust the cane’s sheath into Henry’s face—‘was made by Remy. She makes her own jewellery, and I’ve worked with her long enough to recognise her hand. She made this for you, right?’
‘It sounds like you know everything.’ He nodded slightly. ‘But knowing and understanding are different.’ Bravely, and to Hella’s surprise, Henry stepped back a little, to free himself of the blade, then quickly snatched it back from her while she was distracted. Immediately, she grew a ball of flame, purple this time, in her palm, ready to throw it at him.
But Henry shook his head. ‘No, Hella.’ He threw the blade behind him, out of reach. ‘I’ve never been interested in hurting you, Hellora. I am here to help you. But I do apologise. I should have come to you when you arrived. But Remy warned us that you were out of control, that’s why we had to put the magnet in your room, we needed to keep you alive. She insisted you wouldn’t understand that, so we kept you isolated, and I am sorry.’
Hella paused, frowning. She let the fire dissipate. ‘Wait. What do you mean, magnet? What did you do to me?’
At that moment, Dimitri, hobbling on a shot out knee, came limping around the corner. This time he didn’t hesitate to raise his gun. He fired at her. She ducked and ran off around the corner as Henry shouted for him to stop. At least he could not chase her so quickly. She had to find her friends. Then something very strange happened. It felt like the world was shaking. The ground beneath her feet shifted and rocked, like an earthquake directly under the building. Hella stumbled, skidding to the side. She hit her head with a thunk, and winced. Henry and his ilk didn’t have the power to do this. They’re humans.
Tommy. He’s a Terra, she remembered, and they control the earth. He had come for her.
Chapter Seventy-Four
Meele
Meele’s eyes grew golden and wide as she watched a terrible future unfold. She saw explosions of white fire, angelic power. Coloured blood splattered against the walls, along a window with their words of welcome; Astra inclinant, sed non obligant.
She blinked, her eyes undoubtedly returning to normal, looking into the face of a young faerie, her own indigo eyes wide and worried. ‘I’m okay, Tessa,’ she said. ‘Where are the others?’
‘They went to get the promised witch. She’s in trouble. The humans took her.’ Tessa frowned, and for a moment, Meele thought it was in indignation on Hella’s behalf. Then Meele heard Tessa’s inner thoughts. She had her telepathy. Tessa was reaching out to her sister, keeping tabs on them.
Meele looked down at Tessa’s shining purple wings and smiled. ‘You’re really an Anima Mea now, little fae. You have your telepathy. Soon you’ll have empathy.’
Tessa blinked and turned to her. ‘Empathy?’
‘Yours is the Family of Souls. Empathy is the most common gift associated with your Family.’ Meele smiled. ‘It may come all at once, from everyone, you may only sense those of your Family, or even only one person in the whole world. But you will have it, I think.’ Meele patted her sympathetically. She suspected it would be an intense gift to have, especially for such a young person. Feeling someone else’s emotions, namely pain, fear and anger, would be a lot to handle. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll learn to control it,’ Meele said, reading the girl’s thoughts of worry. ‘You found your sister,’ Meele added, changing the subject, and Tessa grinned.
‘I did. She, Lola, and Amara went to get Hella.’
‘We need to leave this place,’ Meele warned. ‘Trouble is coming. Something bad.’
Tessa’s sweet face darkened. ‘Humans or angels?’
It was such a heavy question, Meele thought. Which enemy is it this time? We have many, Meele knew. ‘Angels,’ she answered. ‘This time it’s angels. It’s the Cambion Den. They’re going to blow it up.’
Tessa’s eyes grew wide. ‘Why would they do that?’ she breathed. Meele was saved having to come up with an answer by a sudden and jolting movement; the ground shook violently.
‘Is that an earthquake, or is that a Terra?’ the little Mea asked.
Meele frowned. ‘That’s no natural earthquake. That’s one of ours. It would seem Hella has more than one rescue party.’
‘Wait, what is that?’
‘I don’t
know. Are they humans? They’re running away.’
‘They are humans, but I don’t think they’re with The Force. I saw their men, they were bigger, in suits, and armed.’
‘Then who are they?’
‘I think they were hostages, look at them go,’ Harrow said, squinting in the dark.
‘Yeah, they’re running pretty fast,’ Tommy said.
‘Well, you did make the ground shake pretty hard,’ Harrow pointed out from behind the bushes, trying to keep his feet under him.
‘Well unless you want to freeze, or flood, the entire building, I don’t see what our other options are.’
‘I’d rather not bring the building down,’ Leo put in.
Tommy nodded. ‘Exactly, so mine was the best option. Stop complaining.’
Harrow wiped dust off his face. ‘You’re making a mess,’ he continued complaining.
The two fleeing humans ran past them, tumbling through bushes close by. They overheard a scattered piece of their interaction. ‘James, hurry up. I don’t want that building to collapse on us. Can you believe it, an earthquake here in Mill Valley? That never happens.’
‘No, it did once, remember. Like a hundred years ago.’
‘Oh, yeah. Come on, let’s go.’
Tommy frowned. ‘Those were Hella’s friends. At least we know they’re alive.’
‘Should we get them?’ Harrow asked.
Tommy shook his head. ‘No, they’re fine. We’re here for Hella.’
The three men nodded and surged forward toward the building. Tommy noted the small areas which were on fire, flashing red and purple. About a dozen armed guards flowed through the open courtyard and up into the still-trembling building. ‘We have to get inside. She’s up there,’ Tommy ordered.
Then one guard saw them, stopped and turned to aim his gun at them. ‘Who are you?’ he demanded, and, without waiting for an answer, fired. The gun went off loudly, Tommy flinched but Leo had shimmered and growled and they found that the bullet had stopped mid-air about three centimetres from Tommy’s stomach.
Feathers, Tails & Broomsticks Page 27
